Distributed systems, or distributed computing, have spawned many
familiar technologies across the years, including
Cloud computing,
Grid computing,
Utility computing, application service provision (ASP),
Software as a Service (SaaS), and
Web 2.0.
What are distributed systems?
The terms distributed systems, and grid and
cloud computing, actually refer to slightly different
things.
But the underlying concept is the same. This is based on
delivering computing resources through a large and often global
network of computers.
In some cases, grid and
cloud computing refers to a system based on a number of servers
linked together to share a computing task. In other cases it means
a web or application server farm, which is separate to the
organisation’s central IT system.
For many organisations,
cloud computing indicates a secure and shared space in which to
share information and do business with industry partners.
What are the benefits of distributed systems?
Distributed systems in general promise to boost the
effectiveness of specific applications by running them across
multiple machines.
They can also
lower the cost of computing through utility computing services,
where users pay for their usage of the larger distributed
system.
The benefits of this model, sometimes called
utility computing or
software as a service (SaaS) is that it means data and
applications can be available from anywhere, generally via a
browser.
Also, users can access more power than they could buy
themselves, because computing resources, such as processing,
networking and storage, are pooled.
Where did distributed systems originate?
The idea of an
“intergalactic computer network” was introduced in the
early Sixties by J.C.R. Licklider, who was responsible for
enabling the development of ARPANET in 1969.
His vision was for everyone on the globe to be interconnected
and accessing programs and data at any site, from anywhere.
Other experts attribute the Cloud concept to
computer scientist John McCarthy who proposed the idea of
computation being delivered as a public utility, similar to the
service bureaus
which date back to the Sixties.
What are the milestones in distributed computing?
The arrival of Salesforce.com in 1999 was one of the major
milestones. Salesforce pioneered the concept of delivering
enterprise applications via a simple website, and offered CRM and
sales force automation software over the internet.
The next development was Amazon Web Services in 2002. This
provided a suite of cloud based services including storage,
computation and even human intelligence through the
Amazon Mechanical
Turk.
Then in 2006, Amazon launched its
Elastic Compute Cloud
(EC2) as a commercial web service that allows small companies
and individuals to rent computers on which to run their own
computer applications.
What’s the difference between Cloud and Grid computing?
It comes down to the technology and architecture, but broadly,
grids are used by the scientific,
academic and even financial sectors, to carry out batch
jobs.
Cloud computing, on the other hand tends to have more
user-friendly interfaces and is used for a larger variety of
purposes.
What is Grid computing famous for?
One famous academic grid is SETI@home, a massive number
crunching exercise that doubled as a PC screen saver.
Launched in May 1999, SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence, analyses radio signals from deep space, using the
spare processing cycles of the public’s desktops.
Another massive
global grid network is used by Cern, the
world’s largest particle physics laboratory. The organisation
has a computing farm, based in Geneva, made up of thousands of
servers and storage devices.
It is used to process large amounts of data from the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator.
What are the most recent innovations?
In 2008 and 2009,
Google and others started to offer browser-based enterprise
applications, though services like
Google Apps.
Behind these is
Web 2.0 technology, the latest iteration of distributed
computing.
Web 2.0 makes use of the internet to deliver rich web-based
applications to users around the globe, to
both desktop and mobile users.
What has driven the success of distributed computing?
The key factors that have enabled it to
evolve include the maturing of virtualisation technology, the
development of universal high-speed bandwidth, and
universal software interoperability standards.
What does the future hold?
Experts seem to agree that distributed computing will ultimately
transform today’s computing landscape. All sorts of
applications will be available on massive global networks, from
business apps to multi-user gaming. As a result, the computing
power behind them will be immense.